Long Branch Housing & Comm. Development

Long Branch Housing and Community Development (LBHCD)

CHEER’s Long Branch Housing and Community Development Initiative is driven by goals from the Long Branch Stakeholders convened and facilitated by CHEER. CHEER convened a community-based process to address development related to the Purple Line in the Long Branch community. This process includes residents, local business owners, local nonprofits, and property owners. It facilitates participation by Long Branch community members, including those who are usually least represented, in planning and development decision making. This process leads to the development of plans for consideration by property owners, developers, and government decision makers.

Over four sessions to-date the Stakeholder Group includes approximately

50 members representative of the Long Branch community.

In November and December 2022 and March 2023 the Stakeholders Group participated in four in-person meetings to do three things.

(1) formulate a shared vision of what Long Branch should look like in the future,

(2) articulate a set of community development goals that fulfill that vision, and

(3) suggest ways to monitor progress toward fulfilling those goals.

During the fourth meeting, stakeholders formed goal action teams for the seven priority goals

WHY Does the Stakeholder Group Need to Do This? Long Branch faces profound challenges and opportunities as a result of Purple Line construction and projected completion in 2027. A community voice would promote community friendly and affordable development preventing disruption and displacement for residents and local business and ensure that the Purple Line benefits all community members.

CHEER supported the Long Branch Stakeholders through the Stakeholder Steering Team (SST), who designed and facilitated the stakeholder sessions and the CHEER Resource and Research Team(RRT), who provided background information and helped draft the original measures and action timeline for the seven top goals

Moving forward the SST and RRT will help the LB Stakeholders collect data, take actions on county legislation, budgeting and zoning, and procure funds for the short and long term to achieve the Stakeholder goals.